Percy Jackson: The Final Message
by Ripred Dominates
Summary: Nico di Angelo went on a top secret mission to Tartarus. It was reported he was killed on the way. He wasn't. His last message was classified top secret by Dionysus. And Percy will do anything to get his hands on it, because it's content could save Olymp
1. I Get Attacked by a Giant Dog

**Hello, folks! RD here! This is my first Percy Jackson fic, so I hope you like it! (Note: This story begins about 5 seconds after Battle of the Labyrinth)**

As soon as Nico slid into his chair, I pressed him for details. First I looked over my shoulder to make sure mom or Mr. Blofis weren't listening. Then I asked Nico, "So what's your plan?"

He didn't answer at first. He was too busy digging into his cake, which is understandable. He's never had a birthday cake in his life probably. So I sat patiently for a few minutes while he finished, when I asked, "So tell me. What's your idea?"

Nico wiped his mouth with his napkin and took a long gulp of soda. Finally, he said, "I have an idea to sneak into Tartarus."

I dropped my cupcake in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"How? And why?"

Nico poked at his cupcake. "I found the lawyer who got me and Bianca out of the Lotus Casino."

My eyebrows shot up. "Seriously? Who is he?"

Nico looked around as if to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. Then he said quietly, "It was my father, Hades."

My jaw dropped. For a second I found I couldn't speak. When my voice returned, I said, "Seriously?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Why do you keep saying that? I am deadly serious. I found him at the Lotus Casino when I went back to investigate. He told me that strange things have been happening in the underworld. A man, when he went to be judged, admitted to working with Kronos and that Kronos had been working on a secret project. The man didn't remember how he died, but he was attacked by some foreign monster my father didn't even know about."

The idea intrigued me, but it still seemed suicide. "How in the world will you sneak down to Tartarus without them seeing you?" I asked.

Nico took a deep breath and pulled out some sort of helmet out of his backpack. "With this." he said, laying it on the table.

It took a second for me to click. When it did, I gasped. "Is that-"

"Yes, it is." said Nico grimly. "This is the Helm of Darkness."

I opened my mouth to say, "Seriously" again, but then I thought better of it. Instead I said, "Are you sure it's worth it?"

"It is." Nico assured. "And I need to get to the airport. Fast."

"I'll get you there." I promised, standing up. Nico did the same. we walked to the living room, where Mr. Blofis and my mom were talking and laughing.

"Hey, Percy!" Mr. Blofis turned to look at me. "Brought a new friend?" My mom looked quizzically at us.

"This is Nico di Angelo." I said. "He arrived late."

"That's right." said Nico, playing along. "Bad traffic jam."

My mom nodded at Nico. She knew about him and his being a son of Hades.

"Hey, Mom? Where going to the skateboard shop real quick. We'll be back soon." I said. Nico nodded.

"Okay. Just don't be long." said mom. Then she turned back to Mr. Blofis and they started talking again.

As soon as we were outside, I asked Nico, "Do you have a drachma?"

Nico nodded and flipped me a golden coin. "Why do you need it?"

"Watch this." I said, grinning. I threw the coin onto the street and shouted, "Stop, chariot of damnation!"

The coin disappeared and in its place, a taxi seemingly out of smoke appeared. The window rolled down and out popped Tempest.

"Hello! I remember you!" she said knowingly. She had both an eye and a tooth this time. There were shouts behind her from the other sisters. Suddenly, Tempest was pushed aside by Wasp. "You owe us for the location of one eye Cyclops." she reminded me. "Speaking of eyes, give me the eye, Tempest!"

"No! You had it yesterday!"

"Come on, let's get in." I murmured to Nico. We both got in the taxi.

Pretty soon, we were on our way to the airport. We figured that we could catch the one o' clock plane, if we hurry. And we were definitely hurrying with the Gray Sisters driving.

Suddenly, the car flipped over.

"Ahhhhhhh!" we all screamed. Once we were sure we weren't hurt, me and Nico got out of the car.

Facing us was a giant wolf. It was about twice as large as a regular wolf. But what made me recognize it was that it was wrapped in chains.

"A Fenrir." Nico muttered behind me. The name clicked something in my head. "Isn't a Fenrir in Norse mythology, though?"

Nico shrugged.

The Fenrir growled and lunged at us. It caught Nico by surprise and pinned him to the pavement. He opened his mouth.

Taking out Riptide, I screamed and charged at the giant wolf. It distracted him for a split second. When he saw the sword in my hand, he twisted away at the last second. This caused me to cut off the chains instead of his head.

Suddenly, the Fenrir started growing. Now, he was almost twelve feet tall. Nico groaned under the added weight.

The chains, I thought. The chains keep him from growing. With that and mind, I lunged at the wolf again.

The Fenrir, like I expected, turned away at the last second. I twisted my sword also, and it plunged into an open spot.

The wolf roared in pain. I expected it to dissolve to dust, but it didn't. It just growled at me and limped away. I was too worn out to follow.

Nico wearily got to his feet and groaned. "Thing ways a ton." He muttered.

I sighed. "Come on. Let's go."

**So how did you like it? Please review and tell me. Next chapter coming soon!**

**RD**


	2. Off to Camp

It turned out that Nico and I had to hail a real taxi. It might not have been as fast, but it was much safer.

The driver wasn't too happy to have to drive all the way to Pennsylvania, but he changed his mind when Nico flipped out a few hundred dollar bills. I raised an eyebrow, and Nico mouthed, _Hades provides_.

After a couple of long hours in the taxi, we were finally at Camp Half-Blood. The driver was too tired to question why we were going to this abandoned farm, or so it seemed for mortal eyes. As the taxi drove away, I turned to Nico and asked, "So how will this new monster stop Luke? If anything, it will stop us!"

Nico answered, "I'm not for sure that the monster is working for Luke, but perhaps _with_ him. Luke must have some short of bargaining chip in his possession for a monster's service. If we can eliminate that bargaining chip, or perhaps, even better, steal it…."

"I follow you." I said. "We can bribe the monster to our side."

"Exactly."

Inside the camp, no one blinked twice at our arrival. Not even the Ares kids, who usually greeted him by trying to kill him. Everyone was preparing for war or recovering from the last battle. Annabeth and Grover were nowhere to be found.

Nico and I entered the Big House, and saw that around the big table, were seated Mr. D, Chiron, Clarisse, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover. They were obviously in the middle of a discussion, and were surprised at our arrival. At least, Chiron, Clarisse, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover were. Mr. D hardly blinked.

"Why, hello, Peter Johnson. Nice of you to drop by. What are you and that son of Hades doing here?" He sipped a bottle of Diet Coke.

"The son of Hades has a name." Nico said calmly. "My name is Nico di Angelo."

"Yes, well met, Nick Deangelo." replied Mr. D. "Now, what are you two doing here?"

"Nico, apparently, has a plan to stop Luke." I said. You can hear their startled gasps.

"And what is that, young man?" asked Chiron, curiously.

Nico drew a deep breath. "My father, Hades, has sensed a monster, more powerful and mysterious he has ever known, has been brewing down in Tarturus. He does not know what monster, and that alone is a reason to be afraid. My father, as you know, is the king of monsters."

"Yes, we all know that first-hand." Mr. D muttered, and was hushed by Chiron.

"Now, if this monster is working for Luke, then Luke must have some sort of bargaining chip in his possession. If we can steal that possession, then the monster will be ours to command."

"Well thought out, sonny." sneered Mr. D. "Except that if you try to sneak down to Tarturus, you'll never make in alive, let alone get out."

"Not if you can turn invisible." reasoned Nico. There was a long silence as this sank in.

"Uh-uh. You are NOT borrowing my cap." Annabeth exclaimed, hugging her Yankees hat, as if to protect it.

"No, I don't need that." Nico assured her. "Because I have something more powerful. The Helm of Darkness."

More silence. Finally Chiron said, "Your father?"

"Correct."

Chiron thought for a moment. After a long pause, he finally said, "I don't like it, but it's necessary. We must find out what Luke is up to." He thought some more. "Very well. You shall consult the Oracle."

"Oh, is that really necessary?" asked Mr. D boredly. Everyone turned to him in surprise. "I mean, does he really need all that hocus-pocus in his head before he goes out? I believe that the Oracle's prophecies can do more harm than good."

Chiron sighed tolerably. "Yes, Mr. D, it_ is_ necessary. The Oracle often tells valuable information as well. It is decided. Nico shall consult the Oracle."


	3. We Learn the Prophecy

While we were waiting for Nico to come back from the Oracle, Chiron started asking questions about out arrival.

"A fenrir, you say? Are you sure?" Chiron asked.

I nodded. "But the only problem is that that's Norse. Norse mythology doesn't exist."

Everyone looked at me like I had just dedicated a temple to Kronos. "What?" I demanded. "It DOESN't exist, does it?"

"Of course it exists!" exclaimed Chiron. "The Norse gods exist just as much as the Greek gods do!"

"Huh?" I said, totally bewildered. This was news to me.

"You see, while the Greek gods settled in Greece, the Norse gods settled in Scandinavia. Then, while we moved westward, the Norse moved eastward, to Russia and on to China, Japan, and Thailand. Last we heard, they were in India."

"So," I said, "you know a lot about these guys?"

"Yes, quite a lot. We have never come in contact with them, but we are very interested in their proceedings. We monitor their path to make sure they stay away from America. You see, the reason why Hermes originally invented the internet was to keep tabs on the Norse. Then some mortal accidentally discovered it, and the humans elaborated on it to what it is today."

"And you've never told me about all this?" I demanded, somewhat insulted.

Annabeth shrugged. "It has never mattered. They're thousands of miles away."

"But not anymore, it seems." Chiron said gravely. "This fenrir is bad news. But we do know this: this 'big monster' Hades senses isn't Norse, otherwise he would have known what it is. No, this monster is something entirely different. Which scares me more than anything else." With that happy thought, he left the room, leaving Percy alone to Mr. D, Annabeth, Clarisse, Tyson, and Grover.

Mr. D claimed he had business to attend to, and Clarisse said that she needed to polish her armor. Percy would be willing to bet that both of those excuses were bogus.

"Hey, guys." said Percy, in lack of something to say.

"Hi, Percy!" Tyson said enthusiastically, crushing him in a bear hug.

"Good to see you again, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said, smiling at me. I love it when she does that.

Grover opened his mouth to give me a greeting, but at that moment Nico entered the room. "Where's Chiron?" he asked, confused.

"We don't know." Grover admitted. "What did the Oracle say?"

Nico hesitated. Then, taking a deep breath, he said:

_You shall go to the pits of a fear so deep,_

_You shall find the information, but not to keep._

_You shall be faced with blood and gore,_

_And be betrayed by a being of war._

_And when a demigod takes his final breath,_

_Two lines of culture shall connect._

_And when they do, then please beware,_

_For the smell of war is in the air._

_What after that, I cannot see._

_There are restrictions to prophecy._

_But to win the war and stop evil forever,_

_You shall have to do what you would have done never._

_With a son of a three's final breath,_

_He vanquishes evil and sends it to death._

_His sacrifice will be praised for sure._

_For peace shall reign forevermore._

Silence filled the room. Finally I spoke. "That was it, wasn't it? That was the prophecy that Chiron didn't want to tell me." With tears in her eyes, Annabeth nodded.

I didn't know what to think. The prophecy called for the death of not only a son of the big three, but of another demigod. And that someone will be betrayed by a "being of war." It doesn't take a genius to figure out who that is.

When dinnertime came, I didn't feel hungry. So I just sat in the sand at the lake. I always felt better at the lake. Soon after, Annabeth joined me.  
"I'm sorry." She whispered softly. I didn't answer. So we just sat and watched the waves, and the reflection of the moon on the water. Just us. Together.


	4. A Game of CapturetheFlag Turns Deadly

We saw Nico off to the airport.

"Well, this is it, guys." He says, picking up his backpack.

I swallowed hard. "Yep." If the prophecy was right, this COULD be it. And, of course, the prophecies are always right, but I certainly didn't want to think about that fact right now.

"Bye, Nico!" Annabeth said, as Nico stepped on to the large, 747 airliner. He waved, then the attendant shut the door, which said on the outside, CONTINENTAL AIRLINES.

"I hope he makes it." Grover sighed as we walked away. Nobody replied. I was thinking about the line in the prophecy that said, _You shall find the information, but not to keep. _I think the same line was running through the other's minds.

When we got back to camp, there seemed there was nothing to do. It was mostly abandoned, except for the year-rounders. And for the rest of the week, camp was so…..normal. We had arts and crafts. We rode pegasi. We did the rock climbing wall., lava and all. And then Friday night Capture-the-Flag rolled around.

We were short on members, but with the war against Kronos, Chiron wanted every demigod to get as much training as possible. And no game brought more realistic training with it than Capture-the-Flag.

I jogged up to Annabeth while everyone was putting on their armor. "So what are the teams?"

Annabeth hardly looked up. "Athena and Hermes are allied, and I'm guessing you'll be with us."

"Right on." I said with a grin.

"Good." She said, smiling back. "Ares and the other cabins are facing us. Just like the match where you got claimed.

I remembered that match all to well. Annabeth had placed me on border duty near the lake, and I ended up getting ambushed by half the Ares cabin. I got claimed soon after….and then got attacked by a giant hellhound. If it hadn't been for Chiron's quick thinking —and shooting— than I might not be here today.

I strapped on my breastplate and helmet. Then we all marched down to the forest. Chiron galloped up to the front and gave his usual speech.

"Remember! No intentional maiming! Prisoners may be disarmed but not bound or gagged. I will serve as battlefield medic and referee. Athena, Hermes, and Poseidon cabins will be blue team. Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Demeter, Dionysus, and Apollo will be red team. The flag must be completely visible, and only two guards are allowed, neither of whom can be within ten feet of the flag. Captains, please lead your teams to your bases."

Annabeth was serving as captain. "Phalanx! March!" she shouted. I could tell that she was enjoying this. While we headed to Zeus's Fist, the red team headed the opposite direction, deeper into the woods.

When we got assembled, Annabeth laid out the strategy. "Percy will lead a group of you down by the beach. Follow the beach until you get behind enemy lines, then cut through to the flag and nab it. I will lead a group on the opposite side of the lake and do the same thing. The Stoll brothers will lead a smaller group straight into the center. Two people need to guard the flag, though."

Two kids from the Hermes cabin were elected. And when we heard the trumpets sound and Chiron shout, "Let the game begin!", about a fourth of our troops came to me and asked for orders. I started marching them down to the side of the lake. We came across a scout from the Ares cabin, but I knocked him unconscious with a blow with Riptide. The rest of the journey was uneventful until we met up with Annabeth's group, which was a surprise. After a brief meeting, we decided to go ahead with the attack.

After a couple minutes of walking, we came across the flag. There was, quite strangely, nobody guarding it.

"Strange." Annabeth whispered beside me, voicing my thoughts. "Even the Ares cabin wouldn't be this reckless. It has to be…" she trailed off. Next to us, Chris Rodriguez grinned.

"Booby trapped." He whispered excitedly. "Maybe the Apollo cabin laid some trap bow and arrows to fire when, say, a wire was tripped upon."

"Nonsense." Annabeth scoffed, suddenly tripping over a wire. An arrow then came wizzing at us, and if I hadn't blocked it with Riptide, Annabeth would have been hit.

"Thanks." She said gratefully. Then she turned to Chris. "So you're right. It IS booby trapped. Good thinking." I could tell she had to swallow some of her pride there. "But now how do we nab the flag?"

After a few minutes of thinking and looking about, Carrow, a kid from the Hermes cabin, had a flash of genius. "How about we just dart in and hope we don't get hit?"

Nobody liked that idea. Then I had a great plan. I turned to face the whole group. "Who here is handy with a bow and arrow?"

One kid raised her hand, a girl named Aranos from the Athena cabin. She held up a custom made bow for everyone to see. "So what do I do with it?

"I want you to fire at the flag. If you can aim it right, it will get stuck on the bow and fly into the grass away from the traps."

Even Annabeth was pretty impressed by that one. "It could work." She said, nodding. She turned to Aranos. "Can you make it?"

She nodded confidently. "My father studied the history of ancient Native Americans. He taught me how to shoot a bow and arrow."

"Good." Annabeth said. "Then let's see what happens."

Everyone held their breath as Aranos notched an arrow from her quiver. She then aimed, and fired.

The arrow pierced clean through the flag, and the flag caught onto it, following the arrow as it land into the grass well away from the now flagless flag pole. The whole group sighed with relief. There would have been cheering if they had not had to keep quiet.

Annabeth ran around the area that the traps probably covered and retrieved the flag. She held it up for us to see, smiling. Then she stopped, suddenly hearing a noise. She turned and gasped. Then a second later, I saw it too.

It would be hard to miss the giant wolf with chains wrapped around it growling hungrily at Annabeth.


	5. Dionysus Breaks the News

Before I could shout, before I could move a muscle, the Fenrir leapt, its teeth aiming towards Annabeth's neck. She screamed and fell backward, but managed to swing her sword.

_Whooooo! _The blade whistled through the air. I was horrified, worrying that it might break off the chains. Then we would have a much bigger problem on our hands.

Fortunately, the Fenrir was surprised, too. It leapt back, away from the sword. This gave me time to gather my wits and shout, "Monster!". I knew Chiron and the red team must have heard that, but it would be at least a minute before Chiron arrived, and even longer for the other campers. In desperation, I charged through the field of booby-traps and towards the Fenrir.

I didn't make it 5 feet before I tripped on a wire. I hit the dirt, and a hidden arrow behind me flew over my head and pierced the Fenrirs ribcage. The beast roared in agony, and limped back a few feet. Apparently it would take more to kill it.

I managed to make it to Annabeth without tripping over a wire. "You okay?" I asked worriedly.

She nodded her face pale. At that moment, Chiron galloped out of the trees. When he saw the Fenrir, he immediately fired two arrows, one after the other.

Both hit its mark in the Fenrir's chest, but amazingly, the beast didn't fall. Instead it ran off, but not towards the forest. It was charging towards the cabins.

"After it!" Chiron shouted. He motioned for me and Annabeth to hop onto his back. He followed the Fenrir at an astounding pace, with the others trailing behind.

The Fenrir was just as fast, though, and he had a head start. By the time we caught up, he was wildly running about the cabins, as if looking for something. He seemed confused. He spun around in circles. Then he let out a gigantic roar.

Annabeth and I jumped off Chiron's back and drew our swords. But the Fenrir seemed to have had enough, and ran off into the woods.

Suddenly, the other campers jogged out of the brush, including the red team. Clarisse was holding our flag, but she didn't seem to feel like gloating. Instead she asked Chiron, "What was that?"

Chiron looked grim. "A fenrir, my dear. Come. I am holding a meeting. Only counselors allowed."

* * *

A half-hour later, all of the counselors filed into the Big House. I looked around at the assorted group. Me, Annabeth, Silena, Clarisse, Beckendorf, the Stoll brothers, Pollux, Chiron, Dionysus, Argus, and the counselors from the other cabins that I don't know their names. Dionysus waved his hand, and Diet Cokes popped up on the table.

Chiron started off the meeting. "As some of you know, and some of you may not, Nico di Angelo recently went on a mission to Tarturus to investigate the presence of a powerful, unknown monster. He left last week. According to Percy, the day before that, he and Nico were attacked by the fenrir while on their way here. And then today, the fenrir appeared and searched the camp grounds, as if looking for somebody. I believe that the fenrir is tracking Nico….to capture or, more likely, kill him."

Silence filled the room. Then, "What are we going to do?" asked Beckendorf.

Chiron sighed. "Somebody, or a group of some bodies, will have to kill the fenrir before he gets Nico."

Connor Stoll spoke up. "Why not capture the fenrir, not kill it? We can then use it as a bargaining chip to get the Norse gods on our side. Think about! A whole new family of gods and heroes! We would totally crush Kronos!" His eyes gleamed with excitement.

Dionysus sighed and shook his head. "No, boy. We can't do that. The Norse won't help us. Look at this! They obviously just joined with Kronos! The fenrir is proof! The Norse have to go!"

Everyone, even Chiron, was stunned. "But Mr. D," he said, "The fenrir is one of the most infamous monsters in Norse mythology! The Norse gods hate the fenrir! Just because the fenrir joined Kronos doesn't mean that the Norse did! Connor is right! We can use the fenrir to gain allies!"

But Mr. D shook his head firmly, then held up a hand written note. "Orders just came in from Father. He watched the whole masquerade from Olympus. He agrees with me: The Norse must be eliminated."

"But we can't afford two wars at the same time!" I argued. "Zeus is crazy!" Silence filled the room, except for a very loud, BOOOM of thunder in the distance. I suddenly realized my mistake.

"Umm…. paranoid?" I suggested meekly, recalling the incident when I first got to Camp Half-Blood."

Dionysus opened his mouth to say something, probably a spell that would turn me into a rodent, but he was interrupted by a pegasus.

"What do you want?" Dionysus snapped.

The pegasus whimpered. He managed out, "M-m-m-message from Tarturus, my lord."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Tarturus, eh? That could mean…"

"Quiet." Dionysus snapped again. Chiron sighed, obviously used to the god's bad temper. Dionysus asked the pegasus quietly, "Now…how did this message get here. A cell phone, maybe?"

"Y-y-yes, my lord." The pegasus reached into a small pouch around his neck with his mouth. He pulled out a Verizon cell phone and dropped it in Dionysus's lap.

Dionysus grimaced and wiped the saliva off on his tiger striped shirt. He opened the cell phone, looked at it for a few seconds, and closed it. "It's a message." He announced, putting the phone in his pocket. "I'll have to look at it alone. All dismissed."

* * *

None of us were happy about being "dismissed", but we really couldn't do anything about it. At lunch, me, Grover, and Tyson sat together at the Poseidon table. We were just sitting down with our food when Dionysus cleared his throat loudly.

Everyone quieted down.

"I have some unfortunate news." Dionysus began, looking like it was all he could do to keep from smiling. "As you know, Nico, the son of Hades, went on a mission to Tarturus." He smiled coldly and looked straight at me. "He didn't make it."

My eyes widened. Dionysus nodded. "Yes. Nico was attacked by the fenrir on the way. He is dead."


	6. The Gods use Photoshop?

**So sorry for the long wait. It's Christmas vacation, and everything's a little hectic. But here's the next chapter.**

**RD**

Hack. Cut. Swing. Thrust. I pummeled the dummy with sword strikes, each hitting its mark. Overhead. Side thrust. Back cut. Parry. With each blow, my anger grew. Side parry. Overhand backhand. Thrust. Lower swing. As my anger grew larger, my strikes became more powerful and inaccurate. HACK. THRUST. SIDE CUT. UPPER SWING. Pretty soon, I was simply taking random swings, my anger fueling my arms. HACK. HACK. HACK. HACK. HACK. HACK!

With the last hack, the dummy split open. I stood there a few minutes, glowering at the dummy as if it were the cause to all my problems. Then I spat into the ground and stalked off, capping Riptide.

Nico is dead. Killed by the fenrir. Over the past few hours, my mind had been consumed by the fact that he was dead. The boy who, even though more than 4 years younger than me, appeared to be much older. Dead.

It couldn't be true. Mr. D was lying. Somehow. I recalled a few hours ago when I asked him to show me the message.

"_No, boy." Mr. D said, almost smiling. "Top secret."_

"_Why won't you show me?" I demanded. "You're hiding something, aren't you?"_

_Mr. D shook his head in amusement. "You heroes are all the same. You're always challenging the word of the gods."_

_With good reason, I thought. But I didn't say it out loud. _

_Apparently, Mr. D somehow knew what I was thinking. "Fine, boy." he said, and he pulled out a cell phone. "I give up. Perhaps it will also cure your fellow campers of any doubts they might possibly have."_

I dig out that cell phone and replayed the message again. I had been watching it again and again for hours. I pressed the play button.

_It was the middle of the day. Nico was running as fast as he can down the street, one hand obscured from view from holding the cell phone. "They're almost upon me." he panted. Behind him, there was a loud bark. "The fenrir." Nico said. "It followed me. The Norse…. They're in league with Kronos. The monster is… is…" he looked behind him. "Darn it. It's there." He drew his sword and pointed the camera to the fenrir. The giant wolf leaped and knocked Nico's sword out of his hand. The force made Nico fall face first on the ground. _

It ended. Apparently, that was when Nico had pressed _Send _on the phone. I once again replayed the message, as if to make sure. Again. But when it got to the part with the fenrir, I noticed something.

It was in the middle of the day, so the sun was shining. In the beginning, the camera caught a glimpse of the sun in the direction that Nico was running to. But then, when it turned to the fenrir, who was behind him, the beast's shadow was in _front_ of it. It should've been _behind _it!

I looked at the time of the film. 3:30, about an hour before we met the fenrir at the game. There was no way the beast could travel from California to Pennsylvania in an hour.

Excited by my find, I rushed towards the Athena cabin, hoping to see Annabeth.

I spotted her at the lake, talking with Tyson and Grover. They all looked mournful. Probably talking about Nico.

I jogged up and told them about the flaws in the film. After I replayed the message for them, they got excited, too. "Mr. D is lying!" Annabeth murmured in disbelief. "This was probably put together on the computer."

"But why would he lie?" Grover asked.

We thought for a few minutes. Then Tyson said, "Maybe Nico found something in Tarturus that Mr. D doesn't want us to know."

"But what?" I asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "There's only one way to find out. We have to look for ourselves."

We looked at her in astonishment. "But…Mr. D's a god! He probably has so many security devices that it would make Q jealous!"

They stared at me. "You know, Q?" I said. "From James Bond?"

"Whatever." Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. "But we need some help with this. Someone who won't tell, and are really good at breaking into places.

After a few minutes of thinking, we all gasped and said in unison, "The Stoll brothers!"


	7. Mission: Impossible

**Ah, I went back and reviewed my last chapter and realized it was probably one of my shortest. I am sorry, because I do not like my chapters to be under a thousand words, though they frequently are. I'm hoping this one is a bit longer, and better.**

**RD**

Travis was the one to answer the door.

"Percy? Annabeth? Tyson? Grover? What are you doing here?"

"We need your help with something." Annabeth said, looking around to make nobody was listening. "A….heist."

That got Travis's attention. "Well, you've come to the right place. What do you want to steal?" Behind him, Connor shouted, "Travis, who are you talking to?"

"Come over here and see." Travis shouted back. Grumbling to himself, Connor trudged over to us. "What are you guys doing here? You got the wrong cabin number?"

"No." I said, slightly annoyed. "We know you are good at stealing things and not getting caught…"

"Obviously not, if you know about it." Connor interrupted. I was beginning to regret this, but I pushed on. "Whatever." I said. "Now, you know about Nico's mission?"

"All over the gossip grapevine." Travis replied. "Are you going to tell us stuff we already know?"

I was beginning to lose my patience, but fortunately Annabeth stepped in. "Mr. D handed out a copy of the message….after it was dubbed top secret. But we discovered a flaw in the film. It was put together on a computer to fool us."

Connor perked up. "You mean like Photoshop? Oh, I love Photoshop!"

"You're telling me." grumbled Travis. "Like that time you turned a picture of me deer hunting into me trying to assassinate Chiron."

"It was a joke!" protested Connor.

I sighed. We didn't have time for this. I held up the phone. "Here's the message." As we watched, I pointed out the spots where it was obviously faked. The fenrir was actually footage taken from one of our many security cameras dotted around the camp. "Nico" was actually taken from a scene from _The Fugitive, _with Harrison Ford's face replaced with Nico's, plus other changes to the body and clothing. The voice was put together on the computer on some clever program, somehow making it sound like Nico.

When the message was done, I asked, "So are you in?"

"Yes." they said in unison.

"I think I have an idea." continued Travis. "Let me see that phone." After a few minutes searching the phone's features, he found what he was looking for. " This is the exact phone that the Pegasus brought. Therefore, Mr. D must've emailed the real message to his computer somewhere. I can't find out the address he sent it to, but this fake message was sent from ''. I'm guessing that is Mr. D's Olympian email address. If we can access his email, we can find the real message."

"How are we going to do that?" Grover asked. "We don't have his password."

"I can get it." Connor said. "But I'll need to be on his computer for it to work."

"Fair enough." I said. "Let's get started."

* * * *

"Mr. D! Mr. D!" Grover shouted in to the Big House. "Hurry, there's a fire!"

Mr. D opened the door and blinked groggily. "Huh? A fire?"

Grover nodded. "Yes! A big fire! It's going to burn down the whole camp if we don't hurry!"

"Good riddance." Mr. D said, and shut the door.

Grover tried again. "But Mr. D! The wine grapes are catching fire!"

Mr. D was out of the door faster than you could blink. "The wine grapes! We better hurry!" He raced in the direction of the vines, with Grover following close behind.

"It's safe." Annabeth whispered next to me. We all got up: Me, Tyson, Travis, Connor, and Annabeth. We walked cautiously to the Big House.. The door was still open. In his rush, Mr. D had forgot to close it. Luck for us he did, because who knew what kind of fancy lock he had placed on the door.

We quickly found Mr. D's computer. Connor sat down in the chair while the others and I stood around.

Connor typed in " " into the browser. At the homepage, there was a box for login. You had to type your email address and your password. Connor typed, "." When we got to the password, I thought we were stuck. But Connor typed in some computer code that looked like a long string of gibberish. "This code will allow me to know what was last typed in this box." Connor explained. "That's why we needed this computer and not some other one." Suddenly, the code was replaced with the word "Ariadne". "That's the password." Travis explained as Connor clicked "Enter".

Finally, we were in. We checked Mr.D's inbox. It was mostly junk. Subscriptions for wine magazines. Articles about how to grow wine grapevines. Love letters from Ariadne. But finally, we found one labled "Nico's Message".

But as Connor was moving the mouse to click on it, we heard a voice from behind us. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here." I spun around and saw Mr. D levitating behind us, sipping from a bottle of Diet Coke in one hand. In the other, he was holding Grover by the arm. "It looks like you broke into my computer…perhaps to look at a message that wasn't yours?"

Connor, who had been looking at the computer the whole time, finally turned to face Mr. D. Mr. D looked past him and was pleased to note that the page was still in the inbox. "Good." he said happily. "You didn't have time to look at it."

"Why are you keeping secrets from us?" I demanded angrily. "We need to know the truth."

Mr. D wagged his finger like he would a small child. "Now, now, let's not get angry. How about this: I'll let you go without punishment IF you promise not to speak a word of this ever again."

"You're letting us go?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, I wouldn't want to draw attention to myself." Mr. D said. "Now get out of here before I change my mind and turn you all into rodents."

* * * * *

"That stunk." muttered Annabeth as we trudged out the door. "We didn't even get a few seconds of the message."

Connor grinned. "Oh, yes, we did." We all turned to face him.

"What?" I asked, startled.

"While Mr. D's attention was focused on you guys, I managed to email the file to this phone again." Connor held out the phone. "It's all there; by the time Mr. D figures out we have it, we'll have already seen it."

Annabeth jumped with joy. "You're a genius, Connor. Now come on; lets watch the REAL message."

**Hmmm….I think that was longer than my last chapter…oh, who cares. Quality vs. Quantity, as they say. Anyways, I hoped you liked it! Next chapter coming out soon!**

**RD**


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